After the first number is called you can hear a pin drop
Four friends who’ve been regulars at Club 3000 Bingo in Knowle for years – clockwise from top left, Kelly Brown and Siobhan Butson, standing, joining Jayne Fear and Kelly’s mum Denise Jenkins every Thursday(Image: PAUL GILLIS / Reach PLC)
Stephen Pidgeon walks through the vast brightly-lit space and is immediately greeted cheerfully by dozens of the people sitting in rows and rows of fixed tables and chairs. The presence of the operations director raised the hubbub of chatter and anticipation, but he turned and smiled: “In five minutes’ time, you’ll be able to hear a pin drop in here.”
And sure enough, on the stroke of 1.30pm, a reverential hush descended on the huge space and an amplified voice from one side was the only sound.
“Five and two, 52,” the voice, which belonged to a young man called Billy, said. “Eight and three, that’s 83.” This was bingo. We were in Bristol’s biggest bingo venue – Club 3000 in Knowle – where the friendly, family and community atmosphere is now hit by uncertainty and sadness, but also hope for the future.
Anyone who has never gone down the escalator at the far end of the Broadwalk Shopping Centre in Knowle is in for a big surprise. Beneath the shopping centre, the Club 3000 venue is astonishingly vast.
This is a venue that can hold a staggering 1,500 people playing bingo – each with a seat at a table and the electronic pads and gadgets that enable modern play. Some players still use traditional cards and big fat ‘dibber’ felt-tip pens, and others somehow manage to do both.
On a busy Friday or Saturday evening, there could be as many as 800 people in here, and it has been known to go over 1,000 even in the years since the Covid pandemic.
While Club 3000’s rivals across the nation have tried all sorts to pull in new punters – rave bingos, loud music and a party atmosphere – Club 3000 stick to what people come for: the bingo.
Club 3000 Bingo at Broadwalk Shopping Centre(Image: PAUL GILLIS / Reach PLC)
On a Thursday lunchtime, it was less busy. There was maybe 150 in, but in the vastness of this cathedral of bingo, they were spread far and wide among the rows of tables.
There was almost a solemn silence to proceedings as Billy reads the numbers in a low-key, soft way. It felt like something from a Catholic church service rather than the holiday camp enthusiastic jokey style you might expect. They take bingo seriously here.
“It’s a friendly club, really friendly,” said Denise Jenkins, in a break from proceedings. She, her daughter Kelly Brown, and her mates Jayne Fear and Siobhan Butson had gathered from all over South Bristol and the surrounding area to sit in their favourite seats and play.
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“It’s our get-together, every Thursday. We’ve been friends for 30 years or more. We do see each other outside of bingo, of course, but some weeks we won’t, and it’s a regular part of our week,” she said.
Club 3000 has everything someone will need for an afternoon or evening out – a bar, a large food area with sausage, lasagne, chips and all sorts sizzling away, a shop for snacks and rows and rows of the tables and the computer pads.
Denise and her friends had brought their own picnic, however. “It is a good, cheap afternoon out,” said Jayne. “You can have a good game for just a few quid, the food and drink isn’t expensive and you can win quite big money. It’s good value,” she explained.
Being the first to complete a line nets you £10 or £20 – being the first to shout ‘house’ – on a relatively quiet Thursday lunchtime brings you £100. When it’s busy, the prize level goes up, and a £1,000 or £1,500 house is common. Club 3000 has a network of 24 bingo halls across the country and there’s national games that could net a £50,000 first prize.
Denise Jenkins at Club 3000 bingo in Knowle(Image: PAUL GILLIS / Reach PLC)
The players studiously monitor the numbers, marking them off as Billy reads them. “It’s exciting too, when you get to needing only one number,” said Siobhan. What do you do then? “Oh, I sh** myself,” said Denise, quickly, sparking roars of laughter from the others.
This bingo venue has been here for decades, but there is a problem, that becomes apparent when Stephen Pidgeon goes out into the smoking area. It, too, is a large area that’s open but also covered by a high roof of crumbling concrete.
Outside here, we’re underneath the big multi-storey car park for the Broadwalk Shopping Centre – the car park that closed earlier this summer with Broadside Holdings, the centre’s owners, announcing it was too far gone to repair.
The outdoor element of the Club 3000 venue even has slot machines and bingo machines so people can continue to play even when taking a cigarette break, but it’s now officially at risk.
So earlier this month, Club 3000 was given notice that it would have to leave. That came as a bit of a surprise, but Stephen is confident or hopeful that something can be arranged to allow the bingo venue to remain open into next year and potentially beyond – whether that’s with the smoking area closed, or the car park reinforced to keep it safe.
Long term, of course, Broadside Holdings has plans to demolish the entire shopping centre, car park, bingo hall and all – which has prompted Club 3000 to look elsewhere. Bristol Live revealed recently that they’d found their dream location – an empty former van hire site at the Bedminster end of Hartcliffe Way.
Club 3000 Bingo at Broadwalk Shopping Centre, Thursday 17 July 2025(Image: PAUL GILLIS / Reach PLC)
“It’s a bit of a risk, making that investment when we don’t have planning permission, but time is against us,” said Stephen. “Ideally, we’d like as short a time as possible between having to leave this place and opening the new venue. So we hope we can move quickly with planning and building, and stay as long as possible here in the meantime.
“It’s a significant investment. It’s worth pointing out that while other bingo companies are closing some of their sites, we’re opening new ones.
“We hope the community, the councillors and the planners look on our plans favourably. When Buzz bingo was closed up at Hengrove Park, for a plan for new housing, one of the things they said was it didn’t matter too much because people could still come here.
“But now we’re having to move because this place is going to be turned into new housing. It’s important to South Bristol, this is an area where there’s not much for people to do, if they don’t want to go to a pub,” he added.
“We do have a bar here, but this is very much a family, friendly environment. It’s a safe place for a lot of people. Women can come here on their own. People make friends, people come here regularly for years,” he said.
Covid hit Club 3000 and its family hard. “We obviously couldn’t open in lockdown. Because we’re a members club, we know everyone. We made a list of the people who we knew were on their own and maybe vulnerable, and we’d make a point of calling them regularly, at least every week, to check in on them,” said Stephen. “We even did things like fetch their shopping.”
Club 3000 operations director Stephen Pidgeon(Image: PAUL GILLIS / Reach PLC)
The affection for Stephen is clear as he walks around – people greet him like an old friend. He first started working here as assistant manager in 1996.
The venue went through various different owners and Stephen came and went as he moved around in his career. By the early 2000s, he was back as manager, and met and married his wife, who at the time was a receptionist.
Club 3000, a family-run independent bingo chain, took it on in the early 2010s and Stephen is now operations director for all 24 of the firm’s sites nationally. That means despite living in South Bristol still himself, he doesn’t get to visit much anymore, so his presence walking around the rows of tables and chairs is a bit of an event for the regular punters who remember the young man from almost 30 years ago.
For Denise and her friends, his presence is also reassuring. They’ve seen the plans for the new venue, and are well aware of the issue with the car park. It’s affected them.
Club 3000 Bingo at Broadwalk Shopping Centre(Image: PAUL GILLIS / Reach PLC)
The group of four come from all over – Congresbury, Totterdown, Felton and Whitchurch – to meet at the bingo every Thursday and now the weekly routine also includes trying to find somewhere else to park.
There has been a ten per cent drop in people through the door since the car park was closed, which has worried Stephen.
“It’s a real shame, but there’s little they can do,” said Denise. “It is really sad, that we will have to leave. I really hope we can all stay for as long as possible, and I really hope they get building the one down the road quickly. It’ll actually be easier for us to get to, as well,” she added.
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